1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to automotive equipment, and more particularly to a battery booster suitable for boosting the batteries in fleets or inventories of automobiles that remain idle for extended periods.
2. Background Information
When automobiles remain idle for extended periods their can run down to a low charge condition too weak to start the engine. If that happens, a car lot attendant often connects a battery booster in parallel with the automobile battery to supply the extra power needed. After starting the engine, he disconnects the battery booster for storage until it is needed again. But sometimes the attendant leaves the battery booster in the car lot instead of returning it to an appropriate storage location and that can cause a problem.
To see why, recall that the battery booster includes a battery also, typically a 12-volt battery for boosting 12-volt automotive batteries. Sometimes called a host battery, it usually adjoins an AC-powered charger on some sort of portable cart. After using the battery booster, the attendant is supposed to move it to the storage location and plug it into a conventional 110-volt AC source so that the charger can keep the host battery fully charged.
Leaving the battery booster in the car lot, however, leaves the charger unplugged from the AC source. Then the unpowered charger does not charge the host battery and the host battery eventually loses much of its charge. That essentially ruins battery booster usefulness because the attendant must first recharge the host battery before using the battery booster and he could just as well charge the run down automobile battery instead. So, some way is needed to overcome the problem.